See You in the Breach
by greeneyedfeelsmonster
Summary: Claudia Donovan gets thrown into the post-Kaiju world by an artifact and loses her memory in the process. She's taken in by Valerie, the owner of the Striker Street Diner, and is working there when a scruffy Hercules Hansen wanders in and orders breakfast at two in the afternoon. Then things get interesting...


She opened her eyes. She was lying on the road in an unfamiliar street. The world looked different, wrong somehow, but she wasn't sure why. She stood up and gasped as a sharp pain shot down her leg. It was bleeding, but it didn't look bad. She looked around, spotted a diner up the road a bit, and her mouth watered a little at the smell of cooking food. _Diner it is, then_. She tested her leg and found it could bear a little weight, and limped up to the diner and inside.

A little bell rang above the door and a dark hand waved from behind the counter. "Be right with y—ouch!" A pretty black woman stood up, rubbing her head. "Damn computer. What can I get for you, hon?"

She swayed a little. "I—"

The woman—Valerie, declared her name tag—frowned in concern and came around the counter. "Hey, sit down," she said gently, pulling her into a chair. "What's your name, honey?"

"Name?" she said in confusion, then started to panic. "I don't—oh god, I don't know!"

"Whoa, easy!" Valerie looked her over. "That's a nasty bump on your head—here, drink some water."

The room was kind of swimming anyway, so she took a sip from the proffered glass. It helped a little.

"Drink that, okay? I'm going to go make a call."

She sipped the water as Valerie ducked into the kitchen. One side of the conversation washed over her.

"Hey, Keisha, it's Valerie. Would you mind coming over to the diner for a bit? … I know, I'm sorry, but it's an emergency, this girl just stumbled in here, I think she's been hit by a car or something. … No, it shouldn't be too long, just the dinner regulars. … Oh, you're a doll. You still have your key, right? … Good, good. … No, I'm leaving as soon as I get off. … Thanks, Keish, you're a lifesaver."

Valerie reappeared and Honey—she needed something to call herself, even if it did sound totally wrong—put down the water. "Going somewhere?"

Valerie nodded. "I'm driving you to the hospital. I know a bit of first aid, but you need a real doctor."

For some reason the word "hospital" filled her with fear. Something of it must have showed in her face, because Valerie patted her shoulder reassuringly. "It's okay, you just need to get checked out. I'll be there the whole time."

As soon as they walked in, she started shaking. She didn't object when Valerie said her name was "Honey"—she was too distracted. The sterile walls, the generic artwork, and the smell—oh god, the smell!—crisp ozone that made her think of sparks and scorched hair and a sadisitc laugh. Part of her mind heard the doctor talk about sedating her, and she let out a hoarse scream before he could finish. Her grip on Valerie's hand tightened so much that she worried it might bruise, but she couldn't help it; it was the only thing keeping her from losing it completely. "Don't let them shock me, don't let them, please…" She didn't know how many times she repeated it, but Valerie held her hand and stroked her forehead.

"Shhhh, shh, it's okay, they can't do anything without your consent. They're not going to shock you, they just want to give you something so you're not so scared. You've got a bump on your head and an ugly cut on your leg, and they need you to relax so they can fix you up. Is that okay? Can they do that?"

Holding back tears, Honey struggled to control her breathing and nodded. She looked away as they gave her an injection, and the rest of the visit passed by in a fog. They treated her leg—it was a long cut, not deep but strangely scorched around the edges—and checked out her head, but couldn't find any reason for the memory loss. They wanted to keep her overnight, but she was aware enough to veto that immediately. No way was she staying there any longer than she had to.

An orderly helped Valerie get her in the car. She was exhausted and nearly asleep when Valerie asked if she had a place to stay.

Honey snorted. "If I do, I don't know where it is."

"Well, you do now."

Honey woke up the next morning in a comfortable bed with only the vaguest memory of being helped up the stairs and under the covers. She didn't remember much about the hospital, either, but it was enough to make her ears turn as red as her hair as she limped into the kitchen and saw Valerie look up and smile.

"Eggs?"

"Sure." She paused awkwardly. "Um… sorry about that—in the hospital, I mean. I don't know why that happened."

Valerie scooped some eggs onto a plate and set it in front of her. "You don't have to apologize. Lots of people are afraid of hospitals, especially after the war."

"War? What war?" Valerie raised an eyebrow. "The Kaiju War? Huge alien monsters coming out of a cosmic breach in the ocean to attack all our cities?"

"Oh my god, for real? Did we beat them?"

Valerie gave her a very strange look. "Yeah…" she said, "We built giant robots and used a bomb to close the Breach. You really don't remember any of that?"

Honey shook her head. "Nope." It was a bit troubling that she'd apparently forgotten an entire war, but at least it distracted her from being embarrassed, so when Valerie went to open the diner, Honey went with her, wanting to help out however she could. Valerie told her it wasn't necessary, but she wanted to do something useful.

Valerie opened the door with a strange-looking key and a voice access code. When Honey remarked on it, Valerie shot her another strange look but said nothing.

"How can I help?" asked Honey as soon as they were inside.

"Set up the chairs and distribute the napkin dispensers?"

She nodded.

"Great, thanks. Now I have to go struggle with this damn computer, be right back."

Honey frowned while she pulled the chairs off the tables and set places with silverware and napkin dispensers, her hands moving automatically as lines of computer code scrolled through her mind. Come to think of it, what was a computer doing in a diner, anyway?

She got her answer when she finished with the tables and walked over to where Valerie was heaping abuse on the machine in question. It seemed to be a central control for the cooking equipment. It looked totally foreign, and yet… "Can I try?"

Valerie stepped back and waved at it. "Be my guest."

The computer didn't turn out to be as strange as it looked. It was certainly faster than anything she was used to, and the interface was holographic, which was a bit weird, but it was still a computer and it still ran on the same principles that all computers ran on. Within a few minutes it emitted a series of tones, and Valerie looked on in amazement as the fryer started up and the ovens heated. Honey looked up with a grin, her eyes sparkling. "Better?"

"You're hired."


End file.
